


by any other name

by galaxyjun



Series: "gay rights!" - kim doyoung [1]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Trans Female Character, Trans Girl Johnny, dumb antics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-08
Updated: 2018-08-08
Packaged: 2019-06-23 23:42:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15617640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/galaxyjun/pseuds/galaxyjun
Summary: and the rain continues to beat down against the windows, almost in time to the beating of her heart.





	by any other name

**Author's Note:**

  * For [frogdrip](https://archiveofourown.org/users/frogdrip/gifts).



> trans girl johnny RISE

“personal question.” jaehyun asks over dinner one day. they’re shoving takeout into their mouths as fast as humanly possible on johnny’s shitty couch she won from doyoung in a game of blackjack. their original date plan was to go on a picnic but jaehyun started going on about his kneecaps and omens and so they opted for a dinner at home instead. about ten minutes after their japanese food arrived, the storm hit, and jaehyun had stood on top of the couch and declared himself quite literally a god.

johnny swallows her drink. “shoot.” she says, and steals jaehyun’s ginger. he pauses, frowning at her because even though he hates ginger there’s something about ‘the principle of food stealing’ that rubs him the wrong way.

“why’d you stick with johnny?”

johnny pauses mid chew. “well, you know.” she shrugs. “most korean girls are named jennie. and pretty much every other female j-name is gross. i changed my korean name ti younghee, but johnny’s just… me, y’know?”

jaehyun hums. he’s busying himself with the boxes, shifting them around, closing them only to reopen them moments later. it’s what he always does when he has things he wants to say but is a little apprehensive about saying them. but johnny lets him stew in his awkwardness for a bit before answering his unasked question, idly commenting “it does bother me a little. the masculinity of it.”

looking up at her, jaehyun asks “how so?” voice soft and gentle, so so considerate, but johnny can’t stop herself from laughing.

“i mean it’s kind of obvious, isn’t it?” she teases. jaehyun’s ears turn bright red and he looks away.

“shuddup.” he mumbles, resolutely staring at Bubble Guppies and spooning rice into his mouth at the speed of light. _cute_ johnny thinks, and reaches over to pinch jaehyun’s cheek. “fuck, don’t pull that hard!”

it only makes johnny pinch harder, making jaehyun yelp with pain. “cuuuuuuuuuute” johnny coos, watching her boyfriend give her the hardest side eye imaginable. he slaps her hand away, rubbing at the reddened skin with his bottom lip stuck out in a pout. johnny almost leans over and kisses it, but jaehyun doesn’t like the taste of ginger and will complain relentlessly for the rest of the night if she does, so she just blows him a kiss instead. jaehyun pretends to bat it out of the air with a scowl, but it’s weakened by his playful eyes and twitching lips and the way he almost immediately blows one back.

but in a very jaehyun way, the mood changes, almost at the speed of light when jaehyun’s face grows soft and he puts down his chopsticks and takes johnny’s hand in his, looking at her sincerely. and then he says, with a voice filled with nothing but love and care and adoration, “does it hurt somedays?”

because jaehyun’s all too familiar with the way it _does_ hurt somedays. with the way it take johnny all the strength in her body to eat, sleep, breath while wearing a shell she never wanted. and jaehyun gets it, he just gets the amount of space that needs to be given and he just gets the spaces and places where he’s allowed to touch and he just gets what words he shouldn’t and shouldn’t say. not naturally, of course, but he listens and he _learns_ and does it so willingly and openly it nearly makes johnny’s head spin.

and in this moment, johnny _could_ throw her arms around jaehyun and choke him in her embrace and declare how much she loves him (heart and soul, mind and body), but she’s done that before. many a time. so instead she just smiles and squeezes his hand, everything she’s said a million times before right there in her grip. but aloud she says, “but what could you do about it?”

jaehyun frowns, thinking for a moment. hesitantly, he offers “i could call you by a different name?”

johnny raises an eyebrow. “like _what.”_

jaehyun’s eyes lose focus, blankly staring at a spot on the wall unblinkingly. johnny can almost hear his last braincell chugging along. after almost a minute, his eyes snap back into focus, filled with mirth and mischief. and then, with his whole god damn chest, he whispers _“johnphia.”_

“no.” johnny says flatly, without hesitation.

“johnathy.”

“never.”

“johnzabeth.”

“jaehyun, you do realize that the ‘john’ part is the masculine bit.”

“okay okay,” jaehyun wheezes, nearly crying. for some reason, johnny’s laughing too. “hear me out.” he shoots a big, dumb, goofy grin in johnny’s direction and then says, with the utmost glee a man could ever muster,

“johnnifer.”

and ginger be damned, she kisses him with all the love in her body, pushing her laughing into his mouth and letting his eyes fall shut as their pure unfiltered happiness spills and overflows, mixing and melting, filling her apartment up to the brim as the rain continues to beat down against the windows, almost in time to the beating of her heart.

**Author's Note:**

> this was fun uwu sorry it's so short!!
> 
>  
> 
> [twitter](http://www.twitter.com/maplemarkle)


End file.
